Mark 10:2-16
“Fantastic,” the preacher thought. “A discussion on the lawfulness of divorce in front of a congregation that is nearly half divorced, if not divorced and remarried.” But here we are.
The culture wars of decades past – or at least those that we hope are decades past – will lead folks to the desire of making much ado about the specifics in conversation between Jesus and the Pharisees. Man. Woman. Male. Female. Two. One. Divorce. Remarry. Adultery. Jesus, speaking in the idiom of his own time and place and within the guardrails of the law of his own people and religious structure, speaks words which are hard for us to hear if we are not listening for the right thing.
Our task of preaching this text can be a source of relief for the soul, that is, grace, should we pause for a moment and see another rhythm occurring in these verses. We have the first rhythm down pat: Man. Woman. Male. Female. Two. One. Divorce. Remarry. Adultery. Church and society have been awkwardly dancing to that banger from time immemorial. But look at the other rhythm happening: Law. Love. Law. Love. The final dance step lands on love, it lands on grace.
The Pharisees, doing what they do to live into the caricature we have created for Pharisees, come with their agenda of getting Jesus to say the wrong thing and he reads their (our) hearts. “Moses allowed a man to write a certificate of dismissal and divorce her,” they respond, when Jesus turns the question back on them. LAW.
Yet in the next sentence, Jesus says that these laws around divorce exist “because of the hardness of your heart.” This is no compliment to humanity. Hardness of heart is the real problem and Jesus is about the work of breaking that shell to help Pharisee and disciple alike see that the condition of a heart disposed towards the love of God, rather than bondage to the law, is the chief concern. Back to our rhythm, we’ve gone from LAW to LOVE.
Humanity, though, is inclined more toward needing the law, rather than being at peace with our freedom in Christ’s love. Rather than side with love, we would rather have a law on which to stake our claim, to clobber both others and ourselves. The disciples demonstrate this as they ask him again back at the house after the encounter with the Pharisees. Jesus gives them the repetition of what happened earlier. LAW.
But the text refuses to leave us there. A dramatic shift occurs as now there are little children being brought so that Jesus may bless them. Turning from divorce and remarriage, Jesus is all about blessing these little ones, even though the disciples want to turn them away. “Let the little children come to me; do not stop them, for it is to such as these that the kingdom of God belongs.” LOVE.
"The preacher who is proclaiming this text stands at an opportunity to speak grace and healing into the lives of people who have known the breakdown of relationships and the grief of separation."
Do not for a second think this passage is just about divorce and remarriage and is here to help us be enforcers of a marriage code. The preacher who is proclaiming this text stands at an opportunity to speak grace and healing into the lives of people who have known the breakdown of relationships and the grief of separation. Sure, we believe that marriage is to be lifelong and based on love. But this world is broken. Things happen. Life happens. Amidst that brokenness, it is Christ reaching out in blessing who has the final word – Good News for the brokenhearted.
This portion of Mark 10 invites us to give up the hardness of heart which shames, condemns, and terrorizes the soul and rejoice in the Good News that even in the midst of the ways we may not live up to our ideals, the rhythm of God’s love and grace beats on unbounded.
PASTOR JONATHON MOYERS is originally from the farm country of western Illinois, serves as pastor to the Chesapeake Country Area Ministry (nicknamed "Shore Lutherans"), a covenant partnership between Grace Lutheran Church of Easton, MD and Saint Paul's Lutheran Church of Cordova, MD. Before his time on the Eastern Shore of Maryland, he served as trauma chaplain for Charleston General Hospital in West Virginia, pastor at St. Paul's Lutheran Church of Ironton, OH, and St. John's Lutheran Church of Dayton, OH. He holds an MDiv from Lexington Theological Seminary, an STM with emphasis in Lutheran Confessions and Systematics from Trinity Lutheran Seminary at Capital University, and is currently studying in the DMin program (liturgics) at United Lutheran Seminary in Philadelphia.
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